My reef aquarium journey

[Johnnynle]

I have a 75 gal 4 foot long tank that I started with not knowing a thing really. I did my research (YouTube for hours lol), so I’ve got plenty of mistakes built into it now. It’s still a beautiful reef tank though. To me and the family anyhow. I am most definitely looking to upgrade as soon as possible to a slightly larger tank using all the knowledge I now have.
Anyhow, I have a 20 gal long dyi sump I built, asm-4 skimmer I bought used of FB, a 600 gph return pump from harbor freight, 2 wattshine black boxes supplemented with a 2 bulb coralife t5 fixture. I also dyi’ed an ato using a relay and float switch. There’s SO much that’s gonna change with the upgrade lol.
For live stock, I have a yellow tang, tomini tang, 2 blue damsels, 1 green chromis, green mandarin, a bengai cardinal, 2 clown fish (forgot what kind), pincushion urchin, condy nem, 3 rock flowers, coral banded shrimp, porcelain crab, and corals.
Water tested today... numbers surprised me, alk was at 11... cal at 500, nitrate 40 ppm, phos .42, mag was good at 1350. I fell off testing for a bit. Shame on me. Big water change tomorrow and testing again a few hours after and again day later and so on and so forth lol.
I also set up a 10 gal nano in the bedroom, light stocking there. Just a pair of clowns, a black ice and frostbite. And a few corals of course. The nano actually looks better than the 75 lol. The few frags seem to fill it more. All I have on the nano is a HOB filter, a dyi led light and an e27 bulb fixture for lighting. Everything is growing well in it though. I truthfully don’t do water testing for it. Never. I do 50% water changes weekly though. It seems to keep everything in good order.

 

[Johnnynle]

The picture is a few days old. The rockscape is different now. I have to get a pic of the new look and the nano tomorrow

 

[Dub_G]

You've got some really nice corals. My wife is partial to the flower nems.

 

[Johnnynle]

You've got some really nice corals. My wife is partial to the flower nems.

My wife’s the same. I got a few more corals from the recent WWC live sale. Not the Memorial Day sale lol. And WWC eBay auction. I want lots more rock nems on the sandbed though

 

[Johnnynle]

The 75 gal now. A bit cloudy from the water change

 

[Johnnynle]

The nano with lights on and with just the blues

 

[Johnnynle]

Nano update

Got a couple new fish for it. A fire fish goby and a red scooter Blenny. Battling algae on and off still. Need new filtration I think...

 

[Lenny blenny]

Is

Nano update

Got a couple new fish for it. A fire fish goby and a red scooter Blenny. Battling algae on and off still. Need new filtration I think...

[/QUOT

Is the scooter blenny getting the algae down? Ps cool looking fish

 

[jordan10]

I like the old set up better in my opinion. Like said before alot nice corals just to much on the sand bed for me. But I started off the same not knowing anything. But doing a good job

 

[Johnnynle]

I like the old set up better in my opinion. Like said before alot nice corals just to much on the sand bed for me. But I started off the same not knowing anything. But doing a good job

Thank you! It’s the same set up. I’d put more of the corals on the rock work but no room lol. It’s only about a 10 gal nano. But I do have a lot of unnecessary “pebbles” on the sand bed(crushed coral). The pebbles are actually pumice stones from the sump of the 75 gal. I’m going to remove them when I add sand. I needed them for the extra media when I started the tank.

 

[Johnnynle]

Is

The red scooter blenny is more of a dragonet. Doesn’t touch the algae, spends most of its time hunting all my pods lol

 

[Johnnynle]

Not much has changed. The nano is gone. Everything that was in there is now in the 75. Except for the fire goby. The six line doesn’t take to new comers well at all.

 

[Johnnynle]

Started a frag tank. An aqueon 40b with a 20g long for a sump. Black box led and 2 bulb t5 combo running ati purple plus and coral plus. I found some ceramic bio media from reefingart.com. Like long squared log like things. I had them running in saltwater I changed out from my 75g with microbacter7 to seed them. Gonna see how they work out. Started putting in the saltwater today. Pretty happy with how it’s coming along so far. A far cry from when I first started my 75g lol.
Please don’t mind the mess in the pic.

 

[Johnnynle]

It’s been a bit since my last update. A lot has changed. I pretty much did a reset. I got a newer 75 gal with less scratches lol. Built a new stand and canopy. Actually glued my rock work solid. Splurged on new equipment; filter roller, skimmer, return pump, wave makers. I had a diatom bloom on my sand bed, probably because it’s new “live” sand. That’s going away now.

Parameters as of 6/20/20

Temp: 78.7 F
Alk: 8.7
Calc: 480
No3: 20
Po4: .14
Mag: 1360

 

[Johnnynle]

The nano tank is still up but I don’t dare post a pic of it here lol. Frag tank in the garage is down. I couldn’t control the temp fluctuations. So
I have a frag zone in my sump.
These pics are my nano. What’s in it anyways. This will be getting a total make over in the near future. Once my other required projects are handled lol

 

[Johnnynle]

Latest update:

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Congrats and nice job!